Saturday, June 23, 2012

Matariki - haere, haere, haere

I knew, of course, that 21 June was Matariki, the Maori New Year, and that it's linked to the appearance of the cluster of stars known as the Pleiades, or the Seven Sisters; you can see them when (says Te Ara) "the sun, drifting north on the shortest day in winter, reaches
the north-eastern end of the horizon. The sun then turns around and begins its
journey south."
What I didn't know until today is that as well as being about new beginnings, planting and fertility, Matariki is the time to remember those who have died in the past year. Here's what Te Ara, the online encyclopaedia of New Zealand, says about it:

"In times of old, the sighting of Matariki was greeted with expressions of
grief for those who had died since its last appearance. Some said the stars
housed the souls of those departed. Rangihuna Pire, in his 70s, remembered how
as a child he was taken by his grandparents to watch for Matariki in mid-winter
at Kaūpokonui, South Taranaki:

The old people might wait up several nights before the stars rose.
They would make a small hāngī. When they saw the stars, they would weep and
tell Matariki the names of those who had gone since the stars set, then the oven
would be uncovered so the scent of the food would rise and strengthen the stars,
for they were weak and cold."

As it happens, even before I found out about this, I did think of Harvey at Matariki, both last year and this year. He set great store by the shortest day and the longest day, as the turning points of the year and the seasons. On 21 June 2010, he wrote: "The shortest day - always one of my favourites. Reversing tracks, the sun turns
north again and slowly our hemisphere will warm up again. A relatively mild
morning, cloudless. By midday it had clouded over and the threatened rain seemed
increasingly closer. Part of the penalty of living in a temperate climate. My
decision to dwell in Wellington determines the climate and the weather in which
I exist. I have no choice on that matter." And of course he had no choice about its being the last time he would see the shortest day. The weather is worse this year, the rain pounding away yet again at the roof and the sodden garden. But the evenings will slowly get lighter now.

The Colour of Food: a memoir of life, love & dinner

INTERVIEW

Also in ebook

This Piece of Earth: a year in my New Zealand garden

Harvey's memoir, now available as an Awa Press e-book - click on the cover to see how to buy it.

MY FOOD BLOG

Click on the lemons to go to Something Else To Eat

FACEBOOK

At my book launch - Lois Daish, me, Mary Varnham of Awa Press. Click on the photo to go to the book's Facebook page.

Harvey's last anthology, These I Have Loved: My favourite New Zealand poems, published by Steele Roberts, was launched on 10/10/2010. To see what Beattie's Book Blog has to say about it, click on the cover.

"I read for pleasure and that is the moment I learn the most." — Margaret Atwood